Altered Perceptions
by GoldenPhoenix823
Summary: In one world, a sacrifice is made and a life is lost, in another a soul is found and a perception is forever altered. -A man who has nothing to die for is not fit to live. Post DH


**A/N: So yeah, I know all of you who have been following Blue Moon have to be pretty pissed off with me for writing this random one-shot instead of updating B.M.A., but in truth I needed a quick break from writing Twilight fanfic, so in order to keep myself sane (and to get this plot which, mind you, has been racing around my head forever, out) I wrote this. Just give it a taste.**

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**Disclaimer: I am neither creative nor imaginative enough to come up with the wonderful world that is Harry Potter. So in other words I do not own Harry Potter and I am not Joanne Rowling.**

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_One has not only an ability to perceive the world but an ability to alter one's perception of it; more simply, one can change things by the manner in which one looks at them._

_Tom Robbins_

The moment Petunia Dursley had awoken to the sound of Vernon's car pulling from the driveway; she knew it was going to be a bad day. The sky was dark with clouds, thick mist hung in the air, and buckets upon buckets of rain poured from the heavens. Abnormal weather for the middle of the summer, and there was nothing Mrs. Dursley hated more, than the abnormal.

As Petunia made her way slowly (she was not as you young as she once was) down the stairs and into the kitchen, she passed the tiny cupboard under the stairs and scowled. Images of her nephew rushed unbidden through her mind.

It had been nearly fifteen years since he had supposedly defeated the evil wizard Voldemort and she had not seen, nor wanted to see the boy. But yet despite her exhaustive attempts to forget the boy, whenever her Dinky Diddyums visited, he regaled her with stories of Harry and his wife, Ginny, and three children, James, Albus, and Lily, and all of the horrid magic and mischief they got up too. It was no secret she did not approve her precious sons continued correspondence with the boy, or rather man now, he had to be about twenty seven by now.

Shaking her head to rid it of any unwanted thoughts she opened the refrigerator, focusing her attention on preparing a wonderful dinner for her Diddy who would be visiting her and his father that night. But the appliance was bare of all food. Cursing, at the uncommon and inconvenient occurrence, Petunia cleaned herself up and, grabbing herself an umbrella and her car keys, drove to the local market.

The drive took much longer than she had anticipated due to the thick sheets of rain clouding her vision and making it impossible to see twenty feet in front of oneself, even with the headlights on. But get there she did, although thoroughly annoyed, only to be even more vexed by the hordes of children running unchecked through the market and screaming as if they had been raised in the wild. A good beating and a missed meal would fix their behavior in a tick.

As if to make matters worse the young woman who rang up her groceries muddled up her change not once, not twice, but thrice. And on her way back to her car, groceries in hand, a hoodlum teen with bright blue hair and enough body piercings to set off a metal detector thirty feet away had the audacity to ask her for anything to 'help him get through rough times'.

"Yes," Petunia snapped bitingly "as a matter of fact I do. Maybe if you took out those ridiculous piercings and left your hair a nice, normal color you'd be able to get a job. That advice will get you past these troublesome times and further. Good day to you," and snapping her umbrella open she stormed angrily to her car.

"Good for nothing teenager," she muttered, pulling onto the road "asking me for something to help him get through the rough times. Why I ought to-" her rant was cut short when, seemingly from nowhere, a man appeared in front of her car and, with no time to stop, she hit him. With a scream, she slammed her foot on the brake, and rushed from the car.

The man was lying some ten feet back, flat on his face and seemingly unconscious. Tentatively, Petunia walked over to the fallen figure and gently shook his shoulder.

"Get up," she said "for the love of her Majesty get up," after several more seconds of prodding, he stirred "Oh thank the Lord," Petunia breathed.

Her relief, however, was short lived, for when the man turned and sat up horror flooded her veins and she let out another shriek.

Shining, emerald green eyes met hers, and widened in disbelief "Aunt Petunia?" her nephew gasped, pulling himself to his feet apparently uninjured.

She nodded curtly, her lips pressed in a narrow line. Her previous thoughts of the boy had been right, he was no longer a boy, he was a man. He was no longer the gangly teenager who had taken up residence in the smallest bedroom of her house. He had grown taller, nearly six feet, and he had filled out, his muscles could clearly be seen through his wet t-shirt, his hair was just as annoyingly unruly as it had once been, and his eyes just as green.

"Merlin, Aunt Petunia," his deep voice shook her from her scrutinization "I know you never liked me, but I never thought you'd hit me with a _car_,"

For the first time in her fifty-three years Petunia Dursley didn't know what to say "Why I- I would- How could-Why would you…," she stammered, then cut off abruptly when she saw the half smile on her nephews face. He had been playing her.

"I could not see you through the rain," she sniffed, attempting to recover her dignity.

His smile grew wider "Well it's nice to know you wouldn't hit me on purpose,"

"I would never," Petunia said, aghast "Not even I hate you that much,"

Harry laughed, and she was surprised to realize a small smile was tugging at the side of her mouth. The sound was infectious.

"I know you don't Aunt Petunia, I always did," she blinked in surprise "So how have you been all these years?"

"Quite alright," Petunia replied "Vernon was promoted as senior-executive of Grunnings, although he plans to retire in a few years, and I daresay you already know how Dudley is doing. And you?" she surprised herself by asking "How have you been?"

"Brilliant," he said "I'm married now; to my best mate's younger sister, Ginny, and we have three kids. Lily Luna, who's four, Albus Severus who's seven, and James Sirius who's ten. And I was promoted as Head Auror, the wizard's version of a policeman, a few days back"

Although she already knew of this Petunia smiled "Congratulations on the promotion and your children sound wonderful, I do wish Dudders would get a move on and have children of his own, "

"Ah, I'm sure he'll find the right girl eventually, and they'll settle down and have some nice kids,"

"Yes," Petunia smiled, "Maybe one day. Now, if you don't mind my asking, what are you doing outside in this weather?"

Harry's smile faded and his eyes became vacant for several seconds, before his expression once again brightened, although it seemed somewhat forced "I'm trying to find my way"

"So you're lost?"

He shook his head "Just confused,"

Petunia stared at him oddly "Well, do you need a ride somewhere?"

Again, he shook his head "No, but thank you, Aunt Petunia. It means a lot that you'd ask,"

An odd sensation ran through her, something she'd felt around Dudley and Vernon, and once a long time ago, her younger sister Lily. With a start she realized it was affection, bordering on love.

In a matter of minutes her perception of the boy- no man, had changed. For the past twenty-six years she had viewed Harry as nothing but a nuisance, an intruder in her home who was bound to end up a failure in life. But staring at the hulking, healthy looking man in front of her, she knew she had been far off. He was successful, far more than Dudley was. He had a high ranking job, a wife, and children, and what was best he reminded her so much of her best friend and little sister, Lily.

And with the reminder of her sister came the remorse. Lily had been her best friend, and because of Petunia's idiotic hatred she had lost her, and not only that, she had failed her as well, Petunia had allowed her bitter jealously to blind her so much it had carried over to her son, and because of that she had mistreated him. She had starved him, locked him away in a cupboard, and treated him as a slave. The realization of the atrocity of her past actions pressed heavily on her heart, sickening her.

"You are quite welcome," she whispered faintly "Now, I must be going, I'm getting terribly wet, and there are groceries in the car,"

"Goodbye then Aunt Petunia," he murmured.

Petunia gave her nephew a small smile, before turning and making her way back to her car, but halfway there she stopped, and in a sudden rush of movement turned around and hugged him. Almost immediately he wrapped his arms around her, Petunia shivered at his cold arms. Yes, they were both drenched in rain, but it was a warm summers rain, he felt as if he'd just plunged himself into arctic waters.

"Warm yourself up, and quickly," she ordered pulling away and heading back to her car "I wouldn't want you to catch your death out here,"

"I will, Aunt Petunia," Harry grinned handsomely at her, before turning on his heel and disappearing with a quiet pop!

As Petunia drove home, she allowed a single tear to fall down her cheek, as she whispered so softly, she could barely hear herself "I'm so sorry, Harry,"

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Nearly six hours later Petunia was setting the dinner table for two, Vernon was working late and would be unable to join Dudley and her for dinner, when the bell rang.

Hurriedly, setting down the cutlery Petunia rushed to the entrance hall of Number Four Privet Drive and flung the door open. To her surprise instead of only Dudley standing on the doorstep, he was accompanied by a pale face redhead, holding a young red haired girl in her arms with two boys by her side. All five looked grave.

"Oh, hello," Petunia smiled "Who is this, Dudley?"

"Mum, this is Ginny Potter, and her children James, Lily, and Albus," his voice trembled ever so slightly "I'm sorry for bringing them here without any warning, but we needed to tell you something,"

"Oh, it's quite alright, Dudders. Please come in, I made more than enough dinner for everyone. It'll be done in a few minutes," smiling at the unexpected guests, Petunia ushered them into the living room "Sit down, would you like some tea?" all five shook their heads, so taking a seat herself she stared expectantly at first, her son, then her nephews wife "Do you know it's quite a coincidence you're here Mrs. Potter?"

"And why is that?" Ginny asked, her voice sounding oddly hoarse.

"Well, it's because I just saw Harry this morning on my way home from the market. And he was telling me all about you and the children and how he just got promoted to Head Auror,"

Ginny made a strangled sound and buried her face in her daughters hair "We never told anyone about the promotion," Petunia could hear her mutter

"Are you okay, Mrs. Potter?" Petunia asked worriedly "Was he not supposed to have told me?"

"He couldn't have told you, Mum," Dudley whispered "Harry was killed two days ago,"

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**A/N: So yeah, there you go. If any of you really liked it feel free to request different scenes, cuz I had a lot of fun writing it.**

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**HELP!**

**So a few weeks ago I recieved a P.M. from the authour little-bast asking if I knew of a WBWL story, unfortunately, I had never heard of the story but I agreed with little-bast to ask for help finding it on any HP story I post. Anyone who can help us find the story gets a shout out on my next story/chapter and a cookie. Or maybe just a shout out, I'm stingy with my cookies. Here is all the info that we have on the story, though it isn't much (or really anything)**

**Title: Unknown**

**Author: Unknown**

**Summary/Plot: Harry isn't Harry Potter but he's really Ron Weasley and Ron isn't really Ron Weasley but the Real Harry. Arthur and Molly agreed to swap their son with the boy who lived so the real Harry would grow up in a loving family while the real Ron got the fame of being the BWL but was stuck with the Dursleys****.**

**Points You May Recognize from the Story:**

**- They are all at number 12 when they discover that Ron and Harry were switched**

**-When the truth is revealed Ron, or the real Harry, immediately heads to Harry's, the real Ron trunk and starts pulling out the photo album and the Firebolt, which starts a fight. In the end Sirius takes the Firebolt from Ron, real Harry, and gives it back to Harry, real Ron, and tells real Harry he would buy him one of his own...**


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